May 30, 2011

We’ve had a great Memorial day weekend. Daniel had a four-day leave, so he came home Friday. Sarah drove up from San Antonio the same day. Even Chris came home for much of Saturday and yesterday evening.

Saturday our old friend Dennis Ward stopped by to visit. Then I barbecued a bunch of chicken quarters. Then we celebrated Jonathan’s birthday. For the evening, we drove down to Zilker Park for Shakespeare in the Park. (Love’s Labour Lost.)

Yesterday after church Julia took Sarah and Daniel to visit with Memaw. Then we sat around and talked until too late.

Today Daniel had to fly back a little after noon, and Sarah just left to go home, so we’ll have to get back to normal. Although since everybody’s out of school now, normal will be different from what it was before the weekend.

Also, tomorrow morning I have a doctor’s appointment so I took the whole day off, and Julia and I plan to go to the temple tomorrow afternoon. So actually, my weekend isn’t really over yet.

The story of America’s victory over terror in Mesopotamia needs to be told. In justice to those who sacrificed so much, and for the sake of those who may have to face similar dangers in the future, somebody needs to tell the real story of how, against all odds and in the face of unremitting skepticism and defeatism at home, our armed forces built a foundation for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East.

All wars are tragic; some are also victorious. The tragedies of Iraq are real and well known. The victory is equally real — but the politically fastidious don’t want to look. The minimum we owe our lost and wounded warriors is to tell the story of what they so gloriously achieved.

May 18, 2011

This will be a grab-bag post of various things I’ve been meaning to blog about but haven’t had time.

First, (this will only make sense if you read Amy and Daniel’s comments on my last post) I did get the BYU magazine. When I got to the page with the picture, I read the caption and thought, “I remember that. I was there.” And then I looked at the picture and thought, ”And it looks like there I am.”

So the disagreements really break down into two. There’s the science: human influence is either significant or not so significant; and there’s economics: we must have policies which make drastic changes to society, lifestyles and industrial policy – what George Monbiot called “a war against ourselves” – or we must sensibly adapt, and are foolish to create more unnecessary human poverty and misery when we don’t need to.

This isn’t so surprising, really. The most passionate believers in the view that man is irreparably changing the climate are the people with the long lists of radical remedies already prepared; their politics needs the catastrophe, for nobody would entertain their politics for a moment – it wouldn’t be mainstream – if it didn’t come with a catastrophe attached. Take away the catastrophe, and their politics collapses like a house of cards. Politically we’re in a sort of limbo: a few countries have pledged themselves to the course of radically changing lifestyles and industrial policy – but the price of implementing them is political suicide. Things meander along without resolution.

May 1, 2011

I remembered something else I was going to blog about. I just finished reading two books that I can recommend, one fiction and one non-fiction. The fiction one is The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. A warning, though: this 900+ page book is just the first in a series. I think Sanderson caught something from Robert Jordan while working on The Wheel of Time. Still, I recommend anything Sanderson has written; he’s one of the best fiction writers I’ve ever read.

The non-fiction one was Known and Unknown by Donald Rumsfeld. One of the things that impressed me was how he was always insisting we have to question our assumptions. Also, I can’t resist linking to my favorite article about him.